Code of Conduct case - Procedural concerns arising from the failure to put allegations to employees in a way that they could respond to

Procedural concerns arising from Code of Conduct decision making

The quality of agencies’ written work in Code of Conduct cases can create procedural concerns. A failure to put allegations in a clear way that is readily understood by a general reader can adversely affect an employee’s capacity to respond, denying the employee a fair hearing.

The following are examples from cases:

Allegations were put to the employee in a long and confusing document so that it was difficult for the employee to understand the case they had to answer.

Serious allegations were put to the employee but less serious findings were made. However, the agency had failed to put the less serious matters to the employee as an allegation.

An agency redacted witness evidence so extensively in the written notice of the allegations that the employee, and a general reader, would have had difficulty following the evidence, including being unable to identify which witness had given which evidence.